My informant heard the following urban legend from her older sister, who lives in northern Virginia. She says that she doesn’t really believe it, but it could be true because of the chemical reactions involving alka seltzer.

“If you feed a seagull alka seltzer, the bird will explode within around half an hour because it can’t expel the gas through farting or burping so the gas builds up inside it. My sister heard this from a friend in her rock-climbing group in Virginia, and he said he had tried the experiment with his brother or something.”

My informant is not sure if this is true, but says she thinks it seems plausible. She is skeptical, however, about whether or not her sister’s friend actually tried the experiment. I have also heard this urban legend, though I heard from my older cousin while feeding seagulls at a beach barbecue when I was around ten. There is a similar urban legend involving rice, which says that birds will die after eating rice because the grain expands in their stomach. I do not believe either of these are very plausible, but could not find any definitive information on either.

Nightmarchers

Ihilani heard the story of the nightmarchers when she was 8 years old during a weekend trip to her grandparents’ house.  Her grandparents loved telling her old Hawaiian stories, and they often sat by her bed telling her tales.  One of the stories was a legend about the nightmarchers, a group of dead warriors who are believed to rise from their burial sites on certain nights.  It is thought that the warriors march towards the battlegrounds and that anyone who stands in their way will die.  As the nightmarchers travel along the path, a feeling of uneasiness can be detected around them.  Therefore, when Hawaiians sense sickness or ill-being in their family, they rearrange the furniture in their house to avoid the paths of the nightmarchers.

Though Ihiliani has never seen the nightmarchers with her own eyes, she still believes in the legend.  Whenever she feels uneasy or senses a tension in the air, she believes that it’s because the spirits of the nightmarchers are walking by.  The sound of drums and loud chanting also scares her because they are warning signs that the nightmarchers are approaching.  She says this sentiment is similar to those of other Hawaiians.  Many of the citizens fear the spirits, and in order to prevent the evil spirits from entering their homes, some even place leaves on the outside of their houses to ward off the spirits.

The Hawaiian’s fear of the nightmarchers appear to be linked with their respect for the fallen warriors.  The nightmarchers were once warriors of high rank and were held in high esteem by the Hawaiian citizens.  The people’s fear of the nightmarchers, therefore, appear to be stemmed from the spirits’ power and their abilities to inflict pain on the people.  The Hawaiian’s strong belief in the existence of spirits is also evident in this legend.  Therefore, the nightmarchers are indicators of the large role spirits and the mythical world play in the culture of Hawaii.

“Wolf at the Campsite”

Gerad is presently a student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, but he grew up in Tujunga, California. His mother is African-American and grew up in Augusta, Georgia and his father is Caucasian and grew up in upstate New York.

Gerad first heard the story at the age of seven, while on a camping trip with his two sisters and his father. His father told him the legend on two separate occasions. He thinks that the legend is a way in which his father convinced him and his sisters to go to sleep at a reasonable time and to not stay up late in the dark.

The Legend of the Wolf at the Campsite always begins the same way; “A father and his children drove to a campsite in the deep and dark woods. They arrived late at night and had a very difficult time setting up the tent. There was a full moon out and there were strange sounds coming from the woods. The children were scared by the strange noises and the eerie nature of the night, so they asked their father if everything was all right at this campsite. The father said that there was nothing to worry about, as long as all the children go to sleep at a reasonable hour- that wolves only come out at night to get bad children who disobey their parents. The children seemed to be assured of the safety of the area, so not thinking twice about it, they decided to sneak out of the tent at night to play. This was a big mistake. The wolves came out from the surrounding woods and began to attack the children… they screamed but their father was sound asleep.” And the story always ends in the same fashion. The teller explains to the audience that the same thing could happen to them if they disobey as well.

This legend seems to have been invented by an adult who wanted to scare his children into behaving properly. Although there is the possibility that this legend may be true, it is unknown.

“Soft Drink Can Contamination”

Glenn is a resident of Marietta, Georgia, a relatively large-sized suburb of Atlanta. He is originally from Thomaston, Georgia a geographically southern town located near the border of Florida and Georgia. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and works as a Civil Engineer.

Glenn tells me that he has heard that it is unsafe to drink from a soda-can unless the lid is washed in the sink first prior to opening. He says that he has heard a legend that apparently the factories and warehouses where the cans are manufactured are rodent-infested and therefore the cans may have fecal matter remains from these creatures. He has been told that often times the surfaces of the can containers are not sanitary and require washing- especially because of the design of the can. He says that as a result of the way the can is poorly designed, the external surface of the can actually punctures into the drink itself when the consumer pops the top. He claims that he has heard that a person became seriously ill due to contamination from the lid of the soda can.

Though he is unsure as to whether or not anyone actually became seriously ill as a result of poor sanitation regarding the soda cans, he says it doesn’t hurt to wash the top just in case. Coming from an engineering perspective it seems that he is unsatisfied with the whole mechanization of the canning process and expresses a level of distrust in regards to the unsanitary conditions in which the cans are stored prior to shipping for sales and eventual consumption.

It seems that he has a lack of trust for other people to ensure his own sanitary health and safety. I think this may be a common distrust that is plaguing society- the inability to trust that others are doing their part to ensure a healthy and clean environment for food and drink production and consumption. This risk of contamination may stem from a general distrust towards others in general.